A Cornish disaster relief charity is sending aid to the other side of the world to help families who have lost everything in devastating bush fires.
Infernos raged through communities on the island of Tasmania leaving 150 households with nothing.
ShelterBox, which is based in Helston, has sent a response team into the region to assess what aid it can provide.
Kerry Vincent, mayor of the township of Dunalley, said the fires had been swift and catastrophic.
"Residents had no time to flee as the fire came over the hills and swept through the town in under four minutes," she said.
A team from ShelterBox's Australian affiliate have arrived in Tasmania and are on standby to deploy ShelterBox tents and equipment in their trademark green crates which have been stored in Melbourne.
One of the team, Scott Jarman, described how the flames had consumed houses, while miraculously others had escaped.
"On entering the area, we witnessed the indiscriminate path of the fire, noting that some areas of bush land and pasture have been left untouched. But houses centred in the fields have been destroyed by embers reported as travelling some 15km and igniting on impact.
"In other areas electricity lines are burnt to the ground and fields and livestock are destroyed.
"Yet, remarkably, lone houses stand untouched, unlike the numerous businesses and households in the town centre that now only have blackened remnants of chimneys to identify where homes used to stand."
Less than four years ago ShelterBox responded to the loss of around 900 homes when bush fires engulfed Whittlesea area. On that occasion 7,000 survivors registered for assistance with the Red Cross.
